Local Artist to Display Monet Replicas

A Rancho Palos Verdes resident who spent decades pouring over details in collections of work by Claude Monet will again showcase his own replicas of some of the artist's most famous paintings in a local show that kicks off Saturday.

Laszlo Gyermek will display more than 30 re-creations with an emphasis on series paintings by the "Father of Impressionism" at Malaga Cove Library in Palos Verdes Estates. 

Gyermek has worked on hundreds of oil painting replicas during the last four decades with a focus on Impressionist art. Last January, of Monet's Cathedral at Rouen series after studying the work in art museums around the world.

He began work on the Rouen series in 1978 and spent nearly 2,000 hours on the paintings, finishing just before his show in January 2011. Born in Hungary, Gyermek is a retired anesthesiologist and medical researcher.

"The only pressure is, I wanted to be as good as possible, as close to a masterpiece as possible," he said of his Rouen series re-creations in a previous interview.

Attend the show: The exhibit's opening reception will be from 2-4 p.m. Saturday at Malaga Cove Library, 2400 Via Campesina in Palos Verdes Estates. The exhibit will continue during library hours 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. through Jan. 27. Gyermek will be at the show between 2 and 3:30 p.m. Jan. 14 and 21.